W W is the twenty third letter of the English Alphabet. It takes its written form and its name from the union of two Vs, this being the form of the Roman capital letter which we call U. The name, double u, being given to it from its form or composition, and not from its sound, especially the vowels. W is properly a vowel, a simple sound, formed by opening the mouth with a close circular configuration of the lips. it is precisely the ou of the French, and the u of the Spaniards, Italians and Germans. With the oter vowels it forms diphthongs, which are of easy pronunciation; as in well, want, will, dwell; pronouced ooell, ooant, ooill, dooell. In English, it is always followed by another vowel, except when followed by h, as is when; but this case is an exception only in writing, and not in pronunciation, for h precedes w in utterance; when being pronounced hooen. In Welsh, w, which is sounded as in English is used without another vowel, as in fwl, a fool; dwn, dun; dwb, mortar; gwn, a gun, and a gown.
It is not improbable that the Romans pronouced v as we do w, for their volvo is our wallow; and volo, velle, is the English will, G. wollen. But this is uncertain.The German v has the sound of the English f, and w that of the English v.
W, at the end of words is often silent after a and o, as in law, saw, low, sow. In many words of this kind, w represents the Saxon g; in other cases, it helps to form a diphthong, as in now, vow, new, strew.

W n 1: a heavy grey-white metallic element; the pure form is used mainly in electrical applications; it is found in several ores including wolframite and scheelite [syn: tungsten, wolfram, W, atomic number 74] 2: the cardinal compass point that is a 270 degrees [syn: west, due west, westward, W] 3: a unit of power equal to 1 joule per second; the power dissipated by a current of 1 ampere flowing across a resistance of 1 ohm [syn: watt, W] 4: the 23rd letter of the Roman alphabet [syn: W, w, double-u]

W not in the Roman alphabet, but the Mod.Eng. sound it represents is close to the devocalized consonant expressed by Roman -U- or -V-. In O.E., this was originally written -uu-, but by 8c. began to be expressed by the runic character wyn (Kentish wen), which looked something like a cross between lower-case -p- and -y-. In 11c., Norman scribes introduced -w-, a ligatured doubling of Roman -u-, and wyn disappeared c.1300.

W I. noun Date: 1960 W particle II. abbreviation watt III. symbol Etymology: German Wolfram tungsten

w I. noun (plural w's or ws) Usage: often capitalized, often attributive Date: 15th century 1. a. the 23d letter of the English alphabet b. a graphic representation of this letter c. a speech counterpart of orthographic w 2. a graphic device for reproducing the letter w 3. one designated w especially as the 23d in order or class 4. something shaped like the letter W II. abbreviation 1. water 2. week 3. weight 4. white 5. wicket 6. wide; width 7. wife 8. with

W
1.
n. (also w) (pl. Ws or W's) the twenty-third letter of the alphabet.
2.
abbr. (also W.)
1 watt(s).
2 West; Western.
3 women's (size).
4 Welsh.
3.
symb. Chem. the element tungsten.

w
1.
n. (also w) (pl. Ws or W's) the twenty-third letter of the alphabet.
2.
abbr. (also W.)
1 watt(s).
2 West; Western.
3 women's (size).
4 Welsh.
3.
symb. Chem. the element tungsten.

w.
abbr.
1 wicket(s).
2 wide(s).
3 with.
4 wife.

Labial \La"bi*al\, n. 1. (Phonetics) A letter or character representing an articulation or sound formed or uttered chiefly with the lips, as b, p, w. 2. (Mus.) An organ pipe that is furnished with lips; a flue pipe. 3. (Zo["o]l.) One of the scales which border the mouth of a fish or reptile.

W \W\ (d[u^]b"'l [=u]), the twenty-third letter of the English alphabet, is usually a consonant, but sometimes it is a vowel, forming the second element of certain diphthongs, as in few, how. It takes its written form and its name from the repetition of a V, this being the original form of the Roman capital letter which we call U. Etymologically it is most related to v and u. See V, and U. Some of the uneducated classes in England, especially in London, confuse w and v, substituting the one for the other, as weal for veal, and veal for weal; wine for vine, and vine for wine, etc. See Guide to Pronunciation, [sect][sect] 266-268.

w W(1) Linux User's Manual W(1) NAME w - Show who is logged on and what they are doing. SYNOPSIS w - [husfV] [user] DESCRIPTION w displays information about the users currently on the machine, and their processes. The header shows, in this order, the current time, how long the system has been running, how many users are currently logged on, and the system load averages for the past 1, 5, and 15 min- utes. The following entries are displayed for each user: login name, the tty name, the remote host, login time, idle time, JCPU, PCPU, and the com- mand line of their current process. The JCPU time is the time used by all processes attached to the tty. It does not include past background jobs, but does include currently running background jobs. The PCPU time is the time used by the current process, named in the "what" field. COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS -h Don't print the header. -u Ignores the username while figuring out the current process and cpu times. To demonstrate this, do a "su" and do a "w" and a "w -u". -s Use the short format. Don't print the login time, JCPU or PCPU times. -f Toggle printing the from (remote hostname) field. The default as released is for the from field to not be printed, although your system administrator or distribution maintainer may have compiled a version in which the from field is shown by default. -V Display version information. user Show information about the specified user only. FILES /var/run/utmp information about who is currently logged on /proc process information SEE ALSO free(1), ps(1), top(1), uptime(1), utmp(5), who(1) AUTHORS w was re-written almost entirely by Charles Blake, based on the version by Larry Greenfield and Michael K. Johnson . Please send bug reports to 8 Dec 1993 W(1)

w W(1) Linux User's Manual W(1) NAME w - Show who is logged on and what they are doing. SYNOPSIS w - [husfV] [user] DESCRIPTION w displays information about the users currently on the machine, and their processes. The header shows, in this order, the current time, how long the system has been running, how many users are currently logged on, and the system load averages for the past 1, 5, and 15 min- utes. The following entries are displayed for each user: login name, the tty name, the remote host, login time, idle time, JCPU, PCPU, and the com- mand line of their current process. The JCPU time is the time used by all processes attached to the tty. It does not include past background jobs, but does include currently running background jobs. The PCPU time is the time used by the current process, named in the "what" field. COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS -h Don't print the header. -u Ignores the username while figuring out the current process and cpu times. To demonstrate this, do a "su" and do a "w" and a "w -u". -s Use the short format. Don't print the login time, JCPU or PCPU times. -f Toggle printing the from (remote hostname) field. The default as released is for the from field to not be printed, although your system administrator or distribution maintainer may have compiled a version in which the from field is shown by default. -V Display version information. user Show information about the specified user only. FILES /var/run/utmp information about who is currently logged on /proc process information SEE ALSO free(1), ps(1), top(1), uptime(1), utmp(5), who(1) AUTHORS w was re-written almost entirely by Charles Blake, based on the version by Larry Greenfield and Michael K. Johnson . Please send bug reports to 8 Dec 1993 W(1)

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